BaL 12.03.11 Recordings from Sir Thomas Beecham

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This BaL may appear to be along the lines of the recent Bruckner symphonies "substitution", but it is certain to interest the large number of Beecham fans (of which I am but one).

But where do we start with the list of great Beecham recordings? Among my own favourites are his CBS Mozart symphonies, Tchaikovsky's 4th, the Berlin Zauberflote and the famous RCA version of Handel's Messiah with a Straussian orchestra.

This EMI discography may be of interest.

[Chris Newman]

I love the Bjorling La Boheme, de los Angeles Carmen/, Haydn London Symphonies and The Seasons, Delius A Mass of Life and of course the Straussian (Johannes rather than Richard?) Messiah and wonderful Zauberflote. His Sibelius is great too.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

and of course the Straussian (Johannes rather than Richard?) Messiah and wonderful Zauberflote. His Sibelius is great too.

I was thinking of Richard, simply because of the size and complexity of th orchestra.

[Keraulophone]

Don't wait until BAL to order Sir Thomas's Schubert 'Great' C major symphony!

Twenty years ago I heard David Cairns, in a talk on STB, say that his dream Beecham recording never to have appeared would be of this symphony. In this week's Sunday Times he gave five stars to the new Somm release of a recording apparently made privately in the RFH in 1955 on behalf of the conductor: "...the finest account of this mighty work I have ever heard." For the Gramophone critic, In a Summer Garden of Delius from the 1956 Edinburgh Festival is the pearl.

My copy is winging its way from Jersey at this moment, and I look forward to being captivated once again by Beecham's magic touch, not to mention the contributions of some of the finest orchestral players of the day.

[BBMmk2]

I have number of Beecham/EMI recordings. Heaven knows where you would start?

[Alf-Prufrock]

Beecham's Boheme

I agree with Chris Newman that the Beecham Boheme would be at the top of my list. I have never bought it on CD, though, because of the forlorn hope that it was actually recorded in stereo and that a copy of this tape was bound to come to light at some time. As the years pass and I attain the climacteric, I am about to reconcile myself to buying the EMI Great Recording of the Century it has become. I heard a portion of it (Act 3) at a friend's recently and the old magic held me spellbound.

But why was it not recorded in stereo? The major studios were all on top of the job by that time. There must have been some dereliction somewhere, he says with emphasis !

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Beecham's Boheme
But why was it not recorded in stereo? The major studios were all on top of the job by that time. There must have been some dereliction somewhere, he says with emphasis !

I agree; it is surprising that such an important recording is only available in mono. But with such music making, it somehow transcends the minor deficiencies in sound, like many other fine mono recordings of the 50s.

[rauschwerk]

But why was it not recorded in stereo? The major studios were all on top of the job by that time. There must have been some dereliction somewhere, he says with emphasis !

The recording was made by RCA in New York in 1956. The list of 'Living Stereo' recordings from around that time is entirely of orchestral repertoire, and it's quite possible that their producers felt that with its simple microphone setup it would be too risky to use for an operatic recording. As a matter of interest, does anyone know what was the earliest stereo opera recording?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As a matter of interest, does anyone know what was the earliest stereo opera recording?

This is an open-ended question. Britten's Peter Grimes and the G & S Mikado from the same year were among the first studio opera recordings. But they were predated by the unofficial Decca Ring cycle, recently issued on Testament.

[Alf-Prufrock]

Early stereo

RCA were certainly recording in their Living Stereo mode in 1954. I have three Fritz Reiner recordings of Richard Strauss from that year, and also Charles Munch's great recording of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique and Stokowski conducting a Romeo and Juliet Suite of Prokofiev. And the orchestra that Beecham is supposed to be conducting in Boheme is called the RCA Victor Orchestra! (It must be one of the New York orchestras in disguise.)

I have one other recording made in stereo in 1954 : Klemperer for EMI in Hindemith's Nobilissima visione suite. Decca were recording in stereo in mid-1954 too, mainly at Geneva, though I do not possess any of those recordings. So it seems 1954 was the date when stereo recording started to become the norm.

My fantasy about a stereo Beecham Boheme was triggered originally by what I suppose was an urban legend sweeping universities in the sixties that an employee had rescued superfluous tapes of the performance and simply taken them home because the studio did not want them ! There must be many such legends.

[Petrushka]

RCA were certainly recording in their Living Stereo mode in 1954. I have three Fritz Reiner recordings of Richard Strauss from that year, and also Charles Munch's great recording of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique and Stokowski conducting a Romeo and Juliet Suite of Prokofiev. And the orchestra that Beecham is supposed to be conducting in Boheme is called the RCA Victor Orchestra! (It must be one of the New York orchestras in disguise.)

I have one other recording made in stereo in 1954 : Klemperer for EMI in Hindemith's Nobilissima visione suite. Decca were recording in stereo in mid-1954 too, mainly at Geneva, though I do not possess any of those recordings. So it seems 1954 was the date when stereo recording started to become the norm.

My fantasy about a stereo Beecham Boheme was triggered originally by what I suppose was an urban legend sweeping universities in the sixties that an employee had rescued superfluous tapes of the performance and simply taken them home because the studio did not want them ! There must be many such legends.

EMI were notoriously slow off the starting blocks when it came to new technology (they were still producing 78's as late as 1958!) and it is a crying shame that we have been deprived of, to take a famous example, a stereo Kempe Meistersinger. There have been rumours for years that stereo tapes are hidden away in EMI's vaults but if they are then none have surfaced. Furtwangler died in 1954 and it should have proved perfectly possible to have recorded his last discs in stereo (including a complete Walkure). It is tragic that this was not done. The earliest stereo EMI recording I know of is a Prokofiev disc from Nikolai Malko and the Philharmonia set down in 1955 and still, I believe, available on CD.

I would say that stereo did not become the norm until 1958.

[Panjandrum]

I have number of Beecham/EMI recordings. Heaven knows where you would start?

I suspect that this BAL will concentrate largely on this recent batch of re-releases from EMI.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I suspect that this BAL will concentrate largely on this recent batch of re-releases from EMI.

You may well be right, but shouldn't the BBC at least attempt to be impartial. Sir Thomas recorded for RCA and CBS as well.

[BBMmk2]

There wasn't all that many from CBS, was there though?

[Panjandrum]

There wasn't all that many from CBS, was there though?

More than one might think BBM. In 1945-46, Beecham and Walter Legge fell out over the founding of the RPO and Philharmonia orchestras. Beecham continued to record for EMI, but no longer as an exclusive artist. In the 50s there were a number of recordings with CBS/Sony. Some of Beecham's finest post-war recordings of Delius were re-issued by Sony at the start of the last decade, including treasurable performances of Eventyr, Sea Drift (with Bruce Boyce) and Paris.